Productivity

These are questions that are always worth asking yourself. For a list of questions I’m currently asking and investigating, see my /questions page. Five-Minute Journal Questions Morning I am grateful for… What would make today great? Daily affirmations: I am… Evening What are 3 amazing things that happened today? How could I have made today even better? Morning Questions (5 minutes) What’s one thing I’m grateful for? What’s one thing I’m excited about? What’s one virtue I want to exhibit? What’s one thing I’m avoiding? What’s the one thing I need to do? Evening Questions (5 minutes) What were my biggest wins of the day? Did I have any major realizations? What’s on the agenda for tomorrow? Bottleneck Breaker What’s the biggest bottleneck to achieving my next goal? Why aren’t I working on it today? 80/20 Analysis Where am I feeling satisfied? Where am I feeling dissatisfied? For each of the above, what are the 20% of places, habits, people, beliefs, etc. that are responsible for 80% of the positive and negative results? Compounding Projection If I repeated every action from today for one year, where would I end up? Is this the place I want to be? Course Correction Questions What do I need to spend more time doing? What do I need to spend less time doing? What do I need to schedule? What do I need to do? What do I need to be more mindful of? What unresolved issues am I overlooking? What opportunities are in front of me? What obstacles are in my way? Am I going in the right direction with my commitments? What do I need to add? What do I need to delete? What do I need to expand? What do I need to shrink? What have I done well recently? Source: The Productivity Project Forty-Nine Questions to Improve Your Results, by Josh Kaufman Do I use my body optimally? What is the quality of my current diet? Do I get enough sleep? Am I managing my energy well each day? How do I manage daily stress? Do I have good posture and poise? What can I do to improve my ability to observe the world around me? Do I know what I want? What achievements would make me really excited? What “states of being” do I want to experience each day? Are my priorities and values clearly defined? Am I capable of making decisions quickly and confidently? Do I consistently focus my attention on what I want vs. what I don’t want? What am I afraid of? Have I created an honest and complete list of the fears I’m holding on to? Have I confronted each fear to imagine how I would handle it if it came to pass? Am I capable of recognizing and correcting self-limitation? Am I appropriately pushing my own limits? Is my mind clear and focused? Do I systematically externalize (write or record) what I think about? Am I making it easy to capture my thoughts quickly, as I have them? What has my attention right now? Am I regularly asking myself appropriate guiding questions? Do I spend most of my time focusing on a single task, or constantly flipping between multiple tasks? Do I spend enough time actively reflecting on my goals, projects, and progress? Am I confident, relaxed, and productive? Have I found a planning method that works for me? Am I “just organized enough”? Do I have an up-to-date list of my projects and active tasks? Do I review all of my commitments on a regular basis? Do I take regular, genuine breaks from my work? Am I consciously creating positive habits? Am I working to shed non-productive habits? Am I comfortable with telling other people “no”? How do I perform best? What do I particularly enjoy? What am I particularly good at doing? What environment do I find most conducive to doing good work? How do I tend to learn most effectively? How do I prefer to work with and communicate with others? What is currently holding me back? What do I really need to be happy and fulfilled? How am I currently defining “success”? Is there another way of defining “success” that I may find more fulfilling? How often do I compare myself to my perceptions of other people? Am I currently living below my means? If I could only own 100 things, what would they be? Am I capable of separating necessity and luxury? What do I feel grateful for in my life and work? Testing the “Impossible”: 17 Questions That Changed My Life, by Tim Ferriss What if I did the opposite for 48 hours? What do I spend a silly amount of money on? How might I scratch my own itch? What would I do/have/be if I had $10 million? What’s my real TMI (Target Monthly Income)? What are the worst things that could happen? Could I get back here? If I could only work 2 hours per week on my business, what would I do? What if I let them make decisions up to $100? $500? $1,000? What’s the least crowded channel? What if I couldn’t pitch my product directly? What if I created my own real-world MBA? Do I need to make it back the way I lost it? What if I could only subtract to solve problems? What might I put in place to allow me to go off the grid for 4 to 8 weeks, with no phone or email? Am I hunting antelope or field mice? Could it be that everything is fine and complete as is? What would this look like if it were easy? How can I throw money at this problem? How can I “waste” money to improve the quality of my life? No hurry, no pause. Useful questions for reframing (Derek Sivers, Useful Not True) When something goes wrong What’s great about this? How can I use this to my advantage? Does this change the goal, or the path, or nothing? How can I reduce the downsides? When changing direction When I was at my happiest, what was I doing? What have I strongly wanted for the longest time? What’s the opposite of what I usually do? Which of my old beliefs are not serving me? Forget me. What would be most helpful for others? When stuck What is my one top priority now? How can I begin without waiting for anything? What advice would I love to hear from an all-knowing sage? What am I doing that’s actually a distraction? Instead of avoiding mistakes, how can I make more to learn faster? Who can help? To make peace with what’s out of your control What happens if I ignore it and do nothing? Should I learn a lesson from this, or just move on? How can I blame no one, and see this as nobody’s fault? How can I be OK no matter what happens?

Say what you will about Tim Ferriss, I’ve always really enjoyed the questions that he asks himself and others. I also really enjoy LEARNING as much as I can from other people. And so, with that in mind, I’d like to “open source” my search for mentors and invite you, dear reader, to answer at least one of the questions below. Please comment your answers below this post (that way others can benefit from your knowledge as well!). Or, if you’d like, send them to me via email (use my contact form here). Then, go ask these questions to others! Cheers! ...

After listening to the Blinkist summary of Cal Newport’s Deep Work (I’ve read the book, this was just for a refresher), I’m convinced that it’s time for another 30-day fast from Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. I think I’ll still keep my micro.blog up and running, but between running Anglican Compass and sprinting for some last-ditch clarity on my increasingly frustrating dissertation, I need all the extra bandwidth I can get! If you need to get in touch for some reason, please use the contact form on my website. You can also sign up for my very occasional email newsletter here. ...

SOURCE: They Say / I Say: The Moves that Matter in Academic Writing, 4th edition (affiliate link). Perhaps the most helpful and practical book on academic writing! Disagreeing Without Being Disagreeable While I understand the impulse to A, my own view is B. While I agree with X that Y, I cannot accept her overall conclusion that Z. While X argues Y, and I argue Z, in a way we’re both right. The Template Of Templates In recent discussions of A, a controversial issue has been whether B. On the one hand, some argue that C. From this perspective, D. On the other hand, however, others argue that E. In the words of F, one of this view’s main proponents, “G.” According to this view, H. In sum, then, the issue is whether I or J. ...

Writer’s block sucks. I’m currently facing it with regard to my dissertation and I’ve decided to hit pause on research and writing until I regain access to my library carrell at Wheaton. Thankfully, I’ve come across some helpful advice on overcoming writer’s block in Andrew T. Le Peau’s Writer Better: A Lifelong Editor on Craft, Art, and Spirituality (affiliate link). The book is filled with helpful and practical advice on writing, rewriting, publishing, etc. To whet your appetite, I’d like to share some of Le Peau’s tips for conquering writer’s block. These all come from chapter 7, pages. 72–80. ...

The following templates come from They Say / I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing. Introducing What They Say A number of $$$ have recently suggested that $$$. It has become common today to dismiss $$$. In their recent work, Y and Z have offered harsh critiques of Dr. X for $$$. Introducing Standard Views American today tend to believe that $$$ Conventional wisdom has it that $$$ Common sense seems to dictate that $$$ The standard way of thinking about topic X has it that $$$ It is often said that $$$ My whole life I have heard it said that $$$ You would think that $$$ Many people assumed that $$$ Making What They Say Something You Say ...

I’m trying to put together a basic home gym in our basement apartment. Mainly, I’m interested in doing squats for now. Then, I’ll expand to deadlifts and benchpress. Our ceilings are too low for overhead presses, however. Anyways, I just ordered the Valor Fitness BD-9 squat rack from Amazon. I still need a decent Olympic bar and Olympic plates.

I’m reading Walter Sinnott-Armstrong’s excellent book, Think Again: How to Reason and Argue. In it (on pages 25–26), I came across “Rapoport’s Rules.” First formulated by mathematical psychologist Anatol Rapoport and discussed by Daniel Dennett (Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking, 31–35), here they are: 1: You should attempt to re-express your target’s position so clearly, vividly, and fairly that your target says, “Thanks, I wish I’d thought of putting it that way.” ...

Right now, I’m using the RSS readers Inoreader and Reeder to subscribe to the following blogs: Snakes and Ladders – by Alan Jacobs Farnam Street — A Collection of Signal in a World Full of Noise. Seth’s Blog Study Hacks – Decoding Patterns of Success – Cal Newport James Clear Barking Up The Wrong Tree – How to be awesome at life. The Appademic » Technology, productivity and workflows for academics, students and other nerds McSweeney’s Internet Tendency Lifehacker – Do everything better What are you reading? ...

I need to finish this dissertation. To do so, I need to write regularly. For me, that means writing every day—a minimum of 500 words every day. Last spring, I did a pretty good job of writing regularly. However, I’ve fallen off the wagon for various reasons, and it’s been a bear to get back on! So, I’ve decided to put some money on the line, using a service called StickK. ...

Just wanted to give a quick shout-out to this fantastic pencil: the Mitsubishi 9850. It’s cheap, writes well, erases well, and looks great! For more on wooden pencils, read this JetPens guide to the best wooden pencils. And, while you’re at it, check out JetPens’ recommendations for the best pencil sharpeners.

Developed from How to Read a Book, by Mortimer J. Adler. BIBLIOGRAPHIC DATA: Author(s): Editor(s): Translator(s): Title and subtitle: Title and subtitle of any larger work that contains the source: Pages: Volume: Issue: Edition: URL and date accessed: Publisher: Place: Date: INTERPRETATION: Kind of Book (Practical or theoretical?): Subject Matter: Problems Attempted to Solve: Summary (What is the book about as a whole?): Outline of Source: Key Terms: Key Propositions/Arguments (What is being said in detail, and how?): ...

Previously, I catalogued a bunch of different takes on Jordan Peterson, before giving my own take. Since that post, two other pieces about Jordan Peterson have been written that I’d like to share. “Jordan Peterson, Custodian of the Patriarchy,” by Nellie Bowles (New York Times) Nellie Bowles writes Mr. Peterson, 55, a University of Toronto psychology professor turned YouTube philosopher turned mystical father figure, has emerged as an influential thought leader. The messages he delivers range from hoary self-help empowerment talk (clean your room, stand up straight) to the more retrograde and political (a society run as a patriarchy makes sense and stems mostly from men’s competence; the notion of white privilege is a farce). He is the stately looking, pedigreed voice for a group of culture warriors who are working diligently to undermine mainstream and liberal efforts to promote equality. ...

In both my personal and coaching conversations recently, Gretchen Rubin’s personality framework called “The Four Tendencies” has really seemed to resonate with people. So, I thought I would take a few minutes to share it with you. Gretchen Rubin Explains the Four Tendencies First, here’s a six-minute video of Gretchen herself explaining the Four Tendencies and their relevance to changing one’s habits. How do you respond to INNER EXPECTATIONS and OUTER EXPECTATIONS? This is the key question that drives the framework. Here are the possible answers. ...

(DISCLAIMER: You are, of course, more than welcome to try rucking, even if you also love running.) Rucking > Running It took me a long time to “fall in love” with running. It did not take me nearly as long to fall out of love with running! And yet, even though I’ve long enjoyed doing kettlebell swings and doing the 5×5 weight-lifing workout, I did begin to miss the benefits of cardio training. ...